Antifa violence broke out once again in Berkeley, California, this weekend.
On Sunday, a small number of supporters of President Trump decided to gather in the left-wing college town following the cancellation of two similar demonstrations in the area the day before. The reason for the cancellations was due to the large number of violent threats the pro-Trump organizers received.
The day Trump supporters actually showed up in the Bay Area gave leftists the chance to make good on their threats.
The scenes on the ground in Berkeley showed black-masked, red flag-waving thugs taking over the city and assaulting anyone they deemed to be a Nazi. It was a stark contrast to the heroic image Antifa has earned from journalists and politicians in the weeks since the violence in Charlottesville. (RELATED: Berkeley Antifa Protest Turns Violent As ‘Anti-Fascists’ Swarm Park)
There were no clear Nazis in Berkeley, just your average Trump supporters. Yet that didn’t save them from a beating at the hands of Antifa.
Strangely enough, Antifa had drawn praise from the most unlikely of sources within the Trump administration just a few days before they rioted against free assembly in Berkeley.
In a interview with the Financial Times, Gary Cohn, a former Goldman Sachs executive and current White House economic adviser, publicly rebuked his boss Donald Trump’s response to the Charlottesville violence that both sides were at fault. He also praised Antifa as a force for good.
“Citizens standing up for equality and freedom can never be equated with white supremacists, neo-Nazis, and the KKK,” the top Trump adviser asserted.
There are many odd things about a Trump-aligned Goldman Sachs figurehead praising anti-capitalist rioters. It’s pretty strange to praise leftists who dedicate their lives to suppressing free speech and free assembly as standing up for freedom.
Antifa are pretty open about not liking these freedoms, as evidenced by their actions in Berkeley. So it’s hard to say they’re fighting for liberty — especially when they continually attack average Americans who support the president you work for.
What’s even more bizarre is for a Wall Street power player to stand with guys who fantasize about murdering bankers. Cohn is effectively defending people who see him as an evil monster who deserves violence as much as Nazis do.
The leftsts wish to tear down the whole financial system that Cohn has worked his whole life upholding, so why is he praising them?
The answer is that he doesn’t see Antifa as a threat at all. Wall Street folks don’t have to worry about the black-masked bloc assaulting them or burning down their offices. If they did, the federal government would ruthlessly pursue them as domestic terrorists.
But Cohn only sees them as attacking and harming marginal groups that have hardly any cultural capital. It doesn’t matter if those folks get hurt just expressing their constitutional rights, especially if those attacked might disrupt business.
Besides, how can you be a member of polite society and think even detestable Nazis deserve protection from violence?
But Antifa doesn’t just attack right-wing extremists. They also go after your average Trump supporters and conservatives.
However, that still might not be a problem for Cohn and other elites.
The White House economic adviser has drawn a lot of heat during his time in the administration for representing the opposite of Trumpism. Cohn likes unrestricted free trade. He supports globalism. He’s a fan of mass immigration. He has no time for culture war.
And, as seen by his position leading Goldman Sachs, he’s obviously very pro-elite. Cohn’s influence is often seen by Trump’s supporters on the Right as a major hindrance to the agenda they supported in the campaign.
Which brings us back to Antifa. For an anti-establishment group, they rarely, if ever, go after the establishment. Instead, they consign themselves to attacking random Trump supporters and white nationalists — hardly people close to the halls of power.
If these anti-capitalist leftists just focus on people who are opponents of policies Cohn supports, then why should he have a problem with them?
The chattering class has designated the alt-right, Breitbart, Trump voters, ICE and talk radio as far greater threats to American society than violent left-wingers. Cohn, in all likelihood, agrees with this sentiment.
The only threat that he may disagree with is that of President Trump, who is seen as the biggest threat to our country by America’s elites. Since Antifa also stands against Trump, it makes the group a natural ally to the establishment, in spite of their violence and anti-capitalist rhetoric.
Those qualms can be ignored if the anarchists’ energy is directed solely at enemies they share with the elites.
The violence in Berkeley is unlikely to convince Antifa’s supporters in media and politics to rethink their praise. As long as they don’t disrupt any Democratic Party events or Goldman Sachs meetings, they’ll still be heroes fighting for equality and freedom in the eyes of the elite.
This enabling will lead to more violence and embolden the black-clad thugs to continue their crusade against anyone they deem a Nazi. It’s doubtful that they will rethink their actions in light of receiving praise from Wall Street giants and Mitt Romney.
They just want to role play the Spanish Civil War, not attack the actual establishment.
Legend has Vladimir Lenin stating, “We will hang the capitalists with the rope that they sell us.”
Today’s Bolshevik wannabes likely see their new, powerful allies in the same light.
The capitalists of our age certainly don’t think they are a threat to the establishment, but that might change if the leftists are further emboldened.
When given the blank check to attack all Nazis, things might dramatically change when banks are singled out as havens of fascism.
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